Looking At Alternative Accommodations

<B> Looking At Alternative Accommodations</B>

By Robert Selwitz

While Japan has an abundance of luxury accommodations, there also are clean, comfortable and convenient choices for virtually any budget. Indeed, thanks to a national dedication to cleanliness, business travelers can book into the kind of economy hotels in Japan they would never consider in other countries. The more adventurous traveler can try something absolutely different--and save his or her company significant sums--by considering a ryokan.

Offering scrupulously clean, cozy private rooms with baths, ryokans let you sleep on a futon on tatami mats. A ryokan also often provides guests with a yukata, a kimono-like outer garment, and geta, wooden clogs, for use outdoors. Bathing is sometimes communal, but with separate baths for men and women. Ryokan meals are generally Japanese and elaborate.

Reservations for a ryokan can be made through the Welcome Inn Reservation Center. Room rates per guest, per night begin at less than $67, including two meals. But the prices can vary widely, depending on location and destination. For example, in central Kyoto, the Ohto Ryokan runs approximately $40 per night. In Tokyo, the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu, a short walk from the Asakusa Kannon Temple, offers both traditional digs, and Western-style rooms with private baths, telephones, televisions, mini-bars, hot tea and full American or Japanese-style breakfast for under $70 per night.

Another choice for those with a yen for savings are traditional Japanese inns. The guest rooms in these inns are typically large and styled in a traditionally simple design, with tatami straw matting on the floor. The doors are sliding fusuma screens and the furniture is limited to one low table, unless there is a window alcove or veranda that has a small table and a pair of chairs.

Also available in Japan are the no-frills Business Hotels, an economy sleeping choice favored by many business travelers. While conventional hotel amenities such as room service and cocktail lounges are not to be found in a Business Hotel, there are plenty of vending machines on each floor, each with an impressive variety of snacks and beverages.

Beds and baths in Business Hotels are conventional Western style, albeit contained in much less square footage than rooms in the United States. An onsite restaurant is common in these hotels, which are usually found in Japan's center city areas nearby major rail stations. Rates range between $58 and $67.

Yet another type of non-Western, cost-saving accommodation is the minshuku, or bed and breakfast-style Family Inn. These lodgings, operated by families in their homes, offer rates between $33 and $54, including two meals. Needless to say, in this setting and with those prices, there is no maid service, and guests are expected to provide their own towels. However, family inns typically are more personal than traditional hotels.

JNTO recommends about 250 family inns for overseas visitors. Directories of ryokans and other inexpensive or authentic Japanese sleeping options also are available from the organization.